'Nasty' Number 10 beats Boris Johnson to his own resignation

After the weekend Chequers summit, it emerged that Boris Johnson had referred to attempts to sell the prime minister’s Brexit plan as being akin to “polishing a turd”.

Now Johnson had made it very clear he has no interest in undertaking any of the polishing work.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “This afternoon, the prime minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. His replacement will be announced shortly. The prime minister thanks Boris for his work.”

Allies said Johnson had been finalising his resignation letter, but Downing Street announced his departure before he had completed it.

"No 10 obviously wanted to jump the gun and take back control of Johnson resignation since they’ve lost control over everything else,” she added.

"They think they’re terribly clever," said a friend.

Meanwhile as Johnson was preparing to leave the government one of his allies was heading in.

In 2012 then London mayor Boris Johnson has appointed Kit Malthouse as his deputy mayor for business. Now an MP, Malthouse replaces Dominic Raab at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – becoming the eighth housing minister in eight years.